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78 Part 1 Introduction

1 Value proposition. Which products and or services will the company offer? This is supple-
mented by the added value defined using the online value proposition described in Chapter 5
under the six headings of Content, Customization, Community, Convenience, Choice and
Cost Reduction.
2 Market or audience. Which audience will the company serve and target with its com-
munications? For example, business-to-business, business-to-consumer or not-for-profit?
Within these categories are there particular audience segments that will be targeted. The
scope of geographical markets such as countries, regions or towns need to be defined. A
communications plan as described in Chapters 8 and 9 will detail how the audience will be
reached and influenced using online communications on other sites and offline com-
munications such as advertising and public relations.
3 Revenue models and cost base. What are the specific revenue models that will generate
different income streams? What are the main costs of the business forming its budget?
How are these forecast to change through time?
4 Competitive environment. Who are the direct and indirect competitors for the service
and which range of business models do they possess?
5 Value chain and marketplace positioning. How is the company and its services positioned
in the value chain between customers and suppliers and in comparison with direct and
indirect competitors?
6 Representation in the physical and virtual world. What is its relative representation in the
physical and virtual world, e.g. high-street presence, online only, intermediary, mixture?
How will the company influence its audience through the buying process through multi-
channel marketing? For example, how important will be personal interactions such as
phone and chat which attract high service costs, but often have higher conversion rates?
7 Organizational structure. How will the organization be internally structured to create,
deliver and promote its service (this is covered in Chapter 10)? How will it partner with
other companies to provide services, for example through outsourcing?
8 Management. What experience in similar markets and companies do the managers have?
What is their profile which can be helpful to attract publicity?
Timmers (1999) identifies no less than eleven different types of business model that can be
facilitated by the web. These are described mainly in terms of their revenue models and
value chain or marketplace positioning. You will notice that many of these are in common
with the intermediary types identified by Sarkar which we reviewed earlier in the chapter:

1 E-shop – marketing of a company or shop via the web;
2 E-procurement – electronic tendering and procurement of goods and services;

3 E-malls – a collection of e-shops such as Indigo Square (www.indigosquare.com);
4 E-auctions – eBay (www.ebay.com) is the best-known example and offers both B2B and
B2C offerings;
5 Virtual communities – these can be B2C communities such as the major social networks
or B2B communities such as built around trade publishers; these are important for their
potential in e-marketing and are described in the section on virtual communities in
Chapter 9;
6 Collaboration platforms – these enable collaboration between businesses or individuals,
e.g. E-groups, now part of Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) services;
7 Third-party marketplaces – marketplaces are described in Focus on electronic B2B market-
places in Chapter 7;
8 Value-chain integrators – offer a range of services across the value chain;
9 Value-chain service providers – specialize in providing functions for a specific part of the
value chain, such as the logistics company UPS (www.ups.com);
10 Information brokerage – provide information for consumers and businesses, often to
assist in making the buying decision or for business operations or leisure;
11 Trust and other services – examples of trust services include Internet Shopping is Safe
(ISIS) (www.imrg.org/isis) or TRUSTe (www.truste.org) which authenticate the quality
of service provided by companies trading on the web.